Forum:Overhaul?
I want to: #do the releases changes that are on the release talk page, as no-one has replied to me with a reason to the contrary, or taken any action to fix the page. (that is, categorise all current releases and then delete the releases pages and start over with the new 'releases' page referring to 'product lines' rather than geographical sorting). #remove the 'overview' sections -or rewrite them, whichever is easier and appropriate. If no-one post here with a reason to the contrary, I'll start this week. Slax01 10:36, March 27, 2012 (UTC) :What exactly are you proposing to do? I remember being slightly confused after reading your last post on the model releases forum.... But I thought we'd basically reached a conclusion.... I'd say that rewriting the overview sections is definitely a good idea though. --Azimuth727 03:57, March 29, 2012 (UTC) ::I agree to an overhaul, just one thing I found today: List_of_Zoids_Releases and Zoids_Model_Releases. One comes from the main page, the other from the Zoids page. Both seem to attempt to cover the same info. Both are totally different. I only noticed this by clicking on the main page and thinking "why are there only 2 posts on the talk page"... I'm not sure if this is common knowledge, but there are dozens of pages like this scattered all over the place. I don't think deleting everything is the way to go, but we at very least need to delete/consolidate some of it. Sylvanelite 08:53, March 29, 2012 (UTC) Releases page, I want to: *make categories with the info from the current releases page *delete the current releases pages, but keep links to the categories, for instance in a timeline *make a new releases page based on product lines, rather than geographical releases of products. (ie: a page on fuzor zoids, genesis zoids, custom parts, action figures etc. Not a page on the fuzors US, fuzors AU, fuzors JAP releases.) Reasons have been provided at length. Also, as per what Sylvan has said, I may try and make a site map. That was the original intention behind the image map on the main page. I never completed it due to never being able to navigate the releases pages. Ideally you should start at the top and work down- this currently isn't the case. Best example is probably the Zoids page. Realistically, we could delete that page and simply shift the info over to the main page. I would have done so if the wiki skin change hadn't screwed everything up. Slax01 09:10, March 29, 2012 (UTC) :It's become obvious to me that we need to delete some pages. But we also need to make sure no information is lost in the process. There needs to be some kind of plan. There is enough difference between regional releases that it merits a mention. But at the same time, the information is inconsistent enough that it's hard to consolidate. One thing that I think we need to do is remove timing information from the various release pages. For example, nearly half of the Mechabonica article is about its relation to OAR, OER, Robo Strux, and OJR. This information is repeated almost word-for-word on every article that is even remotely related to Mechabonica (which there are a lot). IMO, This information needs structure to prevent so much repetition. (it doesn't help that the OAR and Mechabonica share the same images either). Some example solutions: * Remove the duplicated information from the pages, and just have it in the "list of pages" * Add a template (like the information box on the Zoids pages) which has information like "previous, next, inherited, etc" * Add a table to replace the lists (like the Zoids or video games tables) * Add headings to separate information about the Zoids in the release, the timing of the release, the reception, cancellation, and inheritance from other releases * some combination of the above. From what I've seen of the anime and model pages, tempates and headings seem to be the way to go. Most of the existing release pages are "walls of text". This massively hurts usability, but also means these pages are almost never edited. We need to break up walls of text into small, relevant, manageable, chunks. Removing duplicated and redundant information will come for "free" if we do this. (basing this on the huge number of "Van" pages which used to litter the wiki) Sylvanelite 09:05, March 30, 2012 (UTC)